First published in 1963, in East Germany, "They Divided the Sky"
tells the story of a young couple, living in the new, socialist,
East Germany, whose relationship is tested to the extreme not only
because of the political positions they gradually develop but, very
concretely, by the Berlin Wall, which went up on August 13,
1961.
The story is set in 1960 and 1961, a moment of high political
cold war tension between the East Bloc and the West, a time when
many thousands of people were leaving the young German Democratic
Republic (the GDR) every day in order to seek better lives in West
Germany, or escape the political ideology of the new country that
promoted the "farmer and peasant" state over a state run by
intellectuals or capitalists. The construction of the Wall put an
end to this hemorrhaging of human capital, but separated families,
friends, and lovers, for thirty years.
The conflicts of the time permeate the relations between
characters in the book at every level, and strongly affect the
relationships that Rita, the protagonist, has not only with
colleagues at work and at the teacher's college she attends, but
also with her partner Manfred (an intellectual and academic) and
his family. They also lead to an accident/attempted suicide that
send her to hospital in a coma, and that provide the backdrop for
the flashbacks that make up the narrative.
Wolf's first full-length novel, published when she was
thirty-five years old, was both a great literary success and a
political scandal. Accused of having a 'decadent' attitude with
regard to the new socialist Germany and deliberately
misrepresenting the workers who are the foundation of this new
state, Wolf survived a wave of political and other attacks after
its publication. She went on to create a screenplay from the novel
and participate in making the film version. More importantly, she
went on to become the best-known East German writer of her
generation, a writer who established an international reputation
and never stopped working toward improving the socialist reality of
the GDR.
General
Imprint: |
University of Ottawa Press
|
Country of origin: |
Canada |
Series: |
Literary Translation |
Release date: |
2013 |
First published: |
2012 |
Authors: |
Christa Wolf
|
Translators: |
Luise Von Flotow
|
Dimensions: |
190 x 134 x 15mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Paperback - Trade / With flaps
|
Pages: |
203 |
Edition: |
New |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-7766-0787-0 |
Languages: |
English
|
Subtitles: |
German
|
Categories: |
Books >
Fiction >
General & literary fiction >
Modern fiction
|
LSN: |
0-7766-0787-1 |
Barcode: |
9780776607870 |
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